Attrition when dropping CAPI from a CATI/CAPI panel survey

Oliver Lipps, Florence Lebert

Abstract

In this paper, we study attrition in a household panel survey, where in the firstwave those with a matched landline number were surveyed by telephone, whilethose without received a face-to-face visit. In the second wave, the face-to-facemode was dropped. We find among the first wave face-to-face households a high likelihood to attrite due to “no contact” rather than due to “cannot be tracked” or “refusal”. Socio-demographic characteristics have the expected effects. For example households with young children, with a short-term residence permit, or one-person households cannot be tracked, while those with a face-to-face visit in the first wave, or foreigners with a mother tongue that is not offered in the survey refuse more often. More first wave calls and contacts are associated with all reasons to attrite, in particular with refusal. Based on the findings, we give recommendations to tailor fieldwork to decrease attrition.

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